Former football player and Match Of The Day presenter Jimmy Hill has died aged 87, his agent has announced.
The Londoner, who made his name playing for Fulham in the 1950s, enjoyed a second career as a distinguished broadcaster.
He died after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for a number of years.
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In a statement, his agent, Jane Morgan, said: “It is with great sadness that Bryony Hill and the children of Jimmy Hill have announced that Jimmy passed away peacefully today aged 87 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Bryony was beside him.”
Hill will be cremated at a private ceremony.
A service for his friends and colleagues will be held in the new year, his agent said.
To millions of football fans in the 1980s and 1990s Hill was an outspoken television presenter, but history will show him as a pioneering figure who helped shape the game into what it is today.
Hill was no stranger to controversy, describing David Narey’s goal from the edge of the box against Brazil in the 1982 World Cup as a “toe-poke”, and blaming a ball-girl for facilitating Liverpool’s late equaliser in an FA Cup match at Blackburn in 1991.
But Hill’s long and – despite sporadic gaffes – largely distinguished broadcasting career paled when put aside his earlier achievements both on the pitch and as a visionary and revolutionary figure off it.
Hill was born in Balham, London in 1928.
Having been briefly a chimney sweep as a teenager and also completing his National Service, Hill started his playing career with Brentford, for whom he made 87 appearances before moving across London to Fulham in 1952.
Hill made 276 appearances as a striker for the Cottagers but earned greater recognition in his role as chairman of the PFA, with whom he successfully argued for the abolition of the £20-per-week maximum wage in 1961.
His success would change football as everyone knew it, but it made no financial difference to Hill, who retired the following summer at the age of 33, and became manager of Third Division strugglers Coventry City.
Hill’s impact at Highfield Road was enormous. He changed the club’s kit to sky blue, set in motion a huge stadium reconstruction programme, and laid on trains to carry the club’s fans to away games.
Deeply saddened to hear that Jimmy Hill has left us. A football man through and through who gave the game so much in so many ways #RIPJimmy
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) December 19, 2015
Within six years, Hill had led the club all the way to the top-flight, but after clinching the Second Division title in 1967 following a 25-match unbeaten run, Hill abruptly resigned in order to pursue a career in television.
Beginning as Head of Sport at London Weekend Television in 1967, Hill would go on to become presenter of Match Of The Day in 1973. He would make 600 appearances during his 25-year association with the programme.
In the meantime, Hill underlined his remarkable adaptability within the game when he answered an emergency call for a replacement linesman during Arsenal’s match with Liverpool in 1972.
Hill returned to Coventry in 1975, first as the club’s managing director, then chairman. He successfully lobbied for the introduction of the three-points-for-a-win system in 1981, and also fought for the right for clubs to wear sponsors’ logos on their shirts.
Always striving to take the game forward, Hill made Highfield Road the first English ground to become all-seater in 1981, displaying foresight which would ultimately endure despite an initial unfavourable reaction.
Hill went on to become chairman of Charlton and later Fulham, spearheading a public outcry when the club’s owners proposed a merger with Queen’s Park Rangers in 1987.
While his views may have divided opinion, Hill’s thoughts on the game remained valued.
After leaving Match Of The Day, Hill moved to Sky Television where he co-presented the media panel show ‘Jimmy Hill’s Sunday Supplement’.
